Diving Ecology of leopard seals
Leopard seals, as the top predator amongst the phocid seals, represent an unusual and fascinating example of how marine mammals adapt to and utilise their environment. As divers they do not appear to be able to perform as well as expected, given their size, however they seem to make up for this shortcoming in their ability to exploit a wide range of prey species to great effect.

 

My research is focused on examining how and why leopard seals have evolved some of the unusual traits that set them apart from other seals, in both a physiological and ecological sense. I hope that by understanding how these animals are able to utilise such a broad ecological niche, we will have a better idea of their ability to adapt to the rapidly changing environmental conditions on the Western Antarctic Peninsula.